PRACTICAL WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION MARCH/APRIL 2021 VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Fire Ants and Their Implications to North American Wildlife By Ryan Shurette Turkeys For Tomorrow Who Is It, What Is It and What Can It Do? By Ron Jolly Practical Ways for Landowners to Manage Wildlife with Surveys and Data By Seth Basinger Spring Lake Management By Scott Brown Wildlife Trends Journal Management Calendar By Dave Edwards MAKE YOUR DIRT WORK G3 ATV Model The Firminator G-3 ATV Model features 16-inch ground turning discs, seed hopper with precision ACCU-Seed delivery system and true agricultural grade cast iron cultipacker - all in a single unit sized just right for an ATV. THEFIRMINATOR.COM 678.544.4400 | [email protected] 2 800-441-6826 • MARCH/APRIL 2021 P.O. BOX 640596 PIKE ROAD, ALABAMA 36064 www.wildlifetrends.com Earl Says… 800-441-6826 PUBLISHER/EDITOR hy do I keep chasing turkeys? Seriously, why do we keep spending so Andy Whitaker much money, time and sleepless days trying to outwit a bird with a W DESIGN brain the size of a walnut? Walker360 2501 East 5th Street Last week I was hunting at my buddy’s property in Central Florida and after Montgomery, AL 36107 doing some careful scouting we knew just where the birds would be roosted (334) 832-4975 in the morning. This was going to be a slam dunk hunt and I would be back CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS at the house drinking coffee waiting on the othe s in camp. Yeah right. Dave Edwards Dana Johnson Brant C. Faircloth The next morning, I did my part and set up perfectly in the woods across Wes and Leslie Burger the pasture from where I believed they would be roosted. The birds did their Dr. Wes Wood part when three gobblers sounded off f om my owl hooter. Within a few Theron Terhune Marion Barnes minutes, the three gobblers were joined on the ground by at least a dozen Ted DeVos hens and/or jakes. Man did those birds put on a show! Only problem was Bryan Burhans they never came closer than 100 yards to me. Talk about frustrating. Keith Gauldin Rodney Dyer Dr. Keith Causey I guess if it was meant to be, I would have given one of those birds a ride Ron Jolly home in the back of the truck. But that’s why they call it hunting and not Dr. Stephen Ditchkoff Tes Randle Jolly killing. And the sad thing is…..I’ll be back! Kevin Patterson Ryan Basinger G. Ryan Shurette D. Clay Sisson Kent Kammermeyer Allen Deese Scott Brown Dr. Larry W. Varner Jason R. Snavely Steve Tillmann Mark Thomas For Wildlife Trends editorial, advertising, or change of address: 1-800-441-6826 [email protected] Wildlife Trends Journal is published to provide landowners, land managers and wildlife enthusiasts the latest research-based information in wildlife and game management. Article authors are carefully selected for specific expertise in their respective fields. Subscribers receive six bi-monthly issues and a handsome library binder to save their past issues. Articles may be reprinted with the permission of Wildlife Trends editorial staff. Cover Photo by Scott Brown 3 Fire Ants and their Implications to North American Wildlife By Ryan Shurette G. Ryan Shurette is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and Owner/ Guide of DragSmoker Fishing Guide Service. Contact him at 256-404-5814. The Red imported fire ant is believed to have first arrived in North America by hitching a ride in the cargo hold or ballast of a shipping vessel, most likely in the port of Mobile, sometime between 1935 and 1945. From there it has marched steadily and largely unchecked across the southern landscape. Public domain image by Alex Wild. f you spend any time outdoors directly, but they also pose southern Tennessee, with a few out- Iyou are probably familiar with significant threats to crops, native lying pockets in the Carolinas and the painful itching sting of the animal species, and even entire food west into Arkansas. The black infamous fire ant. To make matters webs in many parts of the United imported fire ant is thought to be worse they never seem to come States. In this article we will slightly more cold-tolerant and pos- alone. If I had a dime for each of examine the origin and biology of sibly a little less aggressive than its the curse words this little insect has fire ants, discuss their impacts to cousin. The black and red species caused, I would most likely be very native species since their relatively can hybridize, and this does occur wealthy. But the inconvenience they recent arrival in this country, and where ranges overlap. The Red cause to us directly through their provide some considerations for imported fire ant on the other hand occasional stinging is nothing their control. is now widespread and abundant compared to the ecological toll they across the entire Southeast and sev- can have on native wildlife. Many Introduction eral surrounding states. It has people nowadays do not even There are actually two species of recently made its way west into realize that fire ants were imported fire ants in the United Arizona and even California, and it completely absent on the North States. Depending on where in the has not finished expanding its American landscape just a few short country you are located, you might range. This highly invasive species decades ago. We have for the most encounter the Black imported is believed to have first arrived in part just accepted this pest as part fire ant (Solenopsis richteri), or the North America by hitching a ride of living in the South. Truth be more common Red imported in the cargo hold or ballast of a known, however, the fire ant is one fire ant (S. invicta). Both are native shipping vessel, most likely in the of the world’s worst invasive insect to the central and southeastern port of Mobile sometime between species. Its wicked reputation in the parts of South America, in the 1935 and 1945. From there the United States is well deserved. Fire countries of Argentina, Paraguay, Red imported fire ant (hereafter ants simply don’t belong here. Uraguay, and Brazil. The black referred to simply as fire ant) These aliens are not only a nuisance species is thought to be fairly limit- marched steadily and largely to humans, pets, and livestock ed in its invasive range to northern unchecked across the southern Alabama and Mississippi and into 4 800-441-6826 • MARCH/APRIL 2021 landscape. Without the threat of vast majority of the colony is made Red imported fire ants have single predation by many its native South up of “worker” ants. All workers queens and some have multiple American predators (primarily ant- are sterile females that are geneti- queens, the latter typically being eaters), the fire ant has not only cally very similar to each other more invasive, with regards to com- become common, it has become (typically sharing ¾ of their genetic petition with native ants and unnaturally abundant in most of its information, whereas human sisters expansion into new areas. new range. According to the USDA typically share no more than ½ of Agricultural Research Service, the their genetic code). This biological In addition to sheer numbers, fire density of the current fire ant pop- strategy of haplodiploidy is ants are equipped with the ability ulation in many areas of the believed to have shaped the selfless to deliver a particularly nasty sting. Southeast is several times higher nature of a colony through time. It Stinging is used as both a defense than the natural densities observed is the worker ant’s sole purpose to mechanism as well as an offensive in its native South American grass- protect the colony as “itself ”, and hunting weapon. When a swarm of land habitats. In heavily saturated forage and fight for the wellbeing fire ants attack an intruder, for habitats in southern states, the of the queen and colony as a example, they have been demon- number of fire ant colonies whole. Male fire ants develop from strated to coordinate (either (mounds) can grow to more than unfertilized eggs and are winged, through mechanical or pheromone 900 mounds per acre, and each col- along with fertile females, which cues) their initial stinging to maxi- ony can contain up to a quarter are produced by the colony to be mize the shock and awe of the million ants. That can spell bad future queens. As both sexes of event. I don’t know anyone who news for many of our native wild- winged individuals take flight dur- just stands in one place when a life species, and even domestic ani- ing the warmer months of the year, couple dozen fire ants initiate the mals. they can often disperse significant signal to strike. The venom of the distances from their home colonies fire ant is chemically engineered to Fire ants, like all other ants, are with the aid of the winds. After immobilize prey and cause pain in members of the Formicidae family aerial mating occurs the males die a defensive situation. The venom is and they are closely related to bees, in short order, and the newly fertil- comprised of a cocktail of insoluble wasps, and hornets (collectively all ized queens tunnel underground to alkaloids (solenopsin) mixed with these related stinging insects belong start a new colony. Some strains of over 45 other known toxic proteins, to the order Hymenoptera). There are believed to be about 20,000 species of ants, with more than 13,000 currently known to science.